We are a grass roots organization located in both Israel and the United States. Our intention is to be pro-active on behalf of Israel. This means we will identify the topics that need examination, analysis and promotion. Our intention is to write accurately what is going on here in Israel rather than react to the anti-Israel media pieces that comprise most of today's media outlets.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

End the Arab-Israel War

In
two sets of remarks, President Obama shared his concerns about what
happens between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. He worries
about the people of Gaza:

Long
term, there has to be a recognition that Gaza cannot sustain itself
permanently closed off from the world and incapable of providing some
opportunity -- jobs, economic growth -- for the population that lives
there…The question then becomes: can we find a formula in which Israel
has greater assurance that Gaza will not be a launching pad for further
attacks ... but at the same time ordinary Palestinians have some
prospects for an opening of Gaza so that they do not feel walled off?

I
don’t worry about Israel’s survival. ... I think the question really
is how does Israel survive? And how can you create a State of Israel
that maintains its democratic and civic traditions? How can you preserve
a Jewish state that is also reflective of the best values of those who
founded Israel? And, in order to do that, it has consistently been my
belief that you have to [meaning Israel has] find a way to live side by
side in peace with Palestinians... You [meaning Israel] have to
recognize that they have legitimate claims, and this is their land and
neighborhood as well.”

To
the president, the problem is Gaza poverty and the lack of a
Palestinian State. That being the case, Israel has to “find a way” to
live in peace with the neighbors; the neighbors have no reciprocal
obligation. Israel has to legitimate Palestinian claims to land for a
country, but Israel’s claim to land for a state recognized as legitimate
by the neighbors remains unaddressed.Missing
from the president’s understanding is that Israel still faces the
century-long Arab determination to deny it as a permanent, legitimate
part of the region. Israel’s independence, under terms the UN used to
establish post-colonial states across the Middle East and Africa,
prompted the Arab states in their entirety not only to object, but to
use their armies to invade the nascent Jewish State. The wars of 1948,
1956, 1967, and 1973 were not about Palestinians; they were Arab
attempts to destroy Israel. Over
time, peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, and the exit of Iraq from
regional politics after 2003 made Israel’s borders quieter. Syria was
deterred by Israel’s position atop the Golan Heights. But smaller wars
with non-state actors supported by Arab states -- 1982 and 2006 in
Lebanon, 2001-4 in the West Bank, and 2008/9, 2012 and 2014 with Hamas
in Gaza -- changed the impression of Israel from a small state facing
large states to a militarily superior state facing ragtag guerrillas and
poor refugees.It
was a major public relations coup for the Palestinians, for whom poor
civilians are an excellent cover for hiding millions of dollars worth of
weapons and private Swiss bank accounts.From
the despised of the Arab world -- more than 200,000 Palestinians were
expelled from Kuwait after the First Gulf War and no one paid any
attention at all; tens of thousands have been displaced from Syria --
they became the last bastion of resistance against Israel. Even the name
of the war changed from the “Arab-Israel conflict” to the
“Palestinian-Israeli conflict.” The “peace process” is no longer about
making the Arab states meet the requirement of UN Resolution 242
[“Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for
and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and
political independence of every State in the area and their right to
live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats
or acts of force.”]. It is about making Israel cough up a Palestinian
State.Two long-time “peace process” devotees wrote in the Washington Post this weekend -- the Post being the newspaper that most advances the Obama Administration’s positions. Dennis Ross, a fixture in the “process” since Oslo, definitively slams Hamas.
“Because Hamas is incapable of changing, it needs to be discredited.”
Not defeated, destroyed, or ousted, just “discredited” in order that the
Palestinian Authority (PA) take over the border crossings to permit the
U.S. to organize “a Marshall Plan for Gaza contingent on Hamas
disarming. If Hamas chooses arms over civilian investment and
development, it should be exposed before Palestinians and the
international community,”“Exposed,” ooh, scary.Hamas
fought a short, brutal, and ultimately successful war against the
Palestinian Authority in 2007. What makes Ross think the PA can
“reestablish itself” in Gaza now? Presumably he means Israel should
establish the PA as the authority in Gaza. Furthermore, Ross wants
Israel to undertake a variety of activities designed to strengthen the
PA on the West Bank as well: to expedite the movement of goods from
Israeli ports; open Area C to Palestinian construction; freeze
settlements except in major blocs. In exchange, the PA would be asked to
forego movements in international organizations that would delegitimize
Israel.So,
Israel’s obligation is to embarrass Hamas, hand over Gaza to the PA,
shore up the corrupt and weak Abu Mazen -- now in the 9th year of a 4
year term of office -- flood Gaza with American-organized aid, and stop
building houses for Jews.In
exchange for what? Peace? Recognition of the legitimacy of the Jewish
State from either Palestinians or the larger Arab world? The PA would be
“asked” to meet its Oslo obligation to forego unilateral activity in
international organizations. Not “required,” just “asked.” Nothing would
be “asked” of the Arab states.The other “peace process” maven, Daniel Kurtzer,
was ambassador to Israel. Kurtzer agrees that a “settlement freeze” by
Israel is essential as well as the release of all the prisoners slated
for release by Israel prior to the kidnapping and murder of three
Israeli teens. In exchange, the PA would “freeze” its activities in the
UN and “intensify steps to curb incitement in media and education.”
Kurtzer at least considers the question, “what if Hamas doesn’t agree?”
but his response is, “Well, if there was an easier way, we would have
thought of it already.”The
president and his minions need a quick course in the modern history of
the Middle East. It is Israel that needs the legitimacy and security
that ending the Arab-Israel war would provide. If the president could
move the Arab states to that point, a Palestinian State would surely
follow.

Caroline Glick & Mark Levin: The Israeli Solution -- A One-State Pla

Why Israel Opposes International Forces in the Jordan Valley

U.S. scholars' group votes in favor of academic boycott of Israel

Yet another indication of the absolute corruption of American academia today. "US scholars' group votes in favor of academic boycott of Israel," from the Jerusalem Post, December 16: NEW YORK – The 5,000-member American Studies Association (ASA), which describes itself as “the nation’s oldest and largest association devoted to...http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/12/us-scholars-group-votes-in-favor-of-academic-boycott-of-israel.html

Israel Living Prophecy

A senior New Israel Fund officer told a U.S. official in 2010 that the disappearance of the Jewish state would not be a tragedy, according to a document that was leaked by Wikileaks...She commented that she believed that in 100 years Israel would be majority Arab and that the disappearance of a Jewish state would not be the tragedy that Israelis fear since it would become more democratic.

Mideast expert Michael Widlanski: Fatah is a joke

US-Israeli talks focus on Ahmadinejad's possible ouster

How to exploit the deep cracks forming in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration for removing the Iranian president was a top item on the agenda of the high-level talks between Barack Obama's advisers and Israeli officials at Mossad headquarters in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, Wednesday, July 29.

DEBKAfile's Iranian sources report that Ahmadinejad's cabinet is falling apart; of his original lineup of 21 ministers, only nine remain at their posts.

The Identity Of The Land

Why the Palestinians need to recognize the Jewish State

We do NOT support a 2-state solution

A January 2009 poll found that Americans oppose creating a Palestinian state by 45-31 percent. A February 2009 Maagar Mohot Survey Institute poll has also shown that Israelis oppose creating a Palestinian state by 51-32 percent.

Many other polls tell a similar story.

These figures suggest that Americans and Israelis have understood that creating a Palestinian state under current conditions will not bring peace but merely another terror state.

Netanya,Israel

Jerusalem At Night

Why reconstruct Gaza without making demands

- that Shalit be release without convicted terrorists being released by Israel in exchange,

- that the US be put in charge of the southern border to ensure that Hamas isn’t rearmed?

- that their three preconditions be accepted by Hamas, i.e. agree to all former agreements,recognize Israel and renounce terror

- that Hamas amend their Charter

- That Hamas disconnect from Iran

The answer is that they don’t want to.

Children of Hamas

Picture of Hamas children the media does not show you

IDF: Civilian Deaths in Gaza Less than 25% of Total

A maximum of 25% of the Palestinians killed in Gaza since the beginning of the Israeli operation are innocent civilians, the head of the IDF's Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA), Col. Moshe Levi, said Wednesday. According to Palestinian medical officials, Israel has killed some 1,000 Palestinians and more than half of them are civilians. Levi said the CLA had compiled a list with the names of 900 Palestinians killed during the fighting. He said that 150 names were of women, children and elderly, and that the maximum number of civilians killed so far was 250. Levi also dismissed claims that 43 Palestinians were killed in an IDF attack on a Hamas terror cell that was firing mortars at Israeli forces from within an UNRWA school in Jabalya. Levi said 21 Palestinians were killed in the attack, including a number of Hamas operatives. (Jerusalem Post)

Hamas teaching the children of Gaza

An Iranian reformist daily newspaper has criticized Hamas "for risking lives of civilians, amongst them children, by hiding its forces in nurseries and hospitals." This is reported in today's Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam. The Palestinian daily adds that in response the Iranian government has closed the newspaper.

"The Iranian news agency "Irna" reported yesterday, that the Iranian Culture Ministry has closed the reformist daily newspaper "Karjo Zaran", because it published a report that included criticism of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). On December 30 the paper published a statement of a reformist student organization, that has criticized Hamas for risking lives of civilians, amongst them children, by hiding its forces in nurseries and hospitals. The statement was published whilst the Iranian government expresses a unified stands against Israel, and Tehran is overwhelmed by demonstrations against Israel."

[Al-Ayyam, Jan. 1, 2009] Thanks PMW

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Iran-backed Hamas Rocket, Mortar Attacks and Nuclear Developments

9,400+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2003. [1]3,200+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza in 2008 alone. [2]6,500+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. [3]543+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israeli territory during the ceasefire from June 19 to Dec. 19, 2008. [4]28 deaths caused by rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israel since 2001. The dead include Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the ceasefire ended, Iran-backed Palestinian groups in Gaza fired rockets and mortars that killed an Israeli-Arab construction worker and a mother of four who was seeking shelter in a bus station as a rocket warning siren sounded. [5]1,000+ people in Israel injured from rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2001, including Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the ceasefire, 44 Israelis have been injured and 200 have been treated for shock. [6]Thanks Israel Project

It began with this...

The British Foreign Office, November 2nd, 1917Dear Lord Rothschild,I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.

“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate theachievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities inPalestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.2

Signed,Arthur James Balfour[Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]

Favorite Books

While Europe Slept

About Me

Semi-retired Professor, now also permanent resident of Israel;divides time between both countries-serves on several Boards of Directors for Israel advocacy groups;Chana, resident of Jerusalem, JCPA member

Syria is an Occupier-Are You Listening World?

As of this minute, Syria occupies at least 177 square miles of Lebanese soil. That you are now reading about it for the first time is as much a scandal as the occupation itself.

The news comes by way of a fact-finding survey of the Lebanese-Syrian border just produced by the International Lebanese Committee for UN Security Council Resolution 1559, an American NGO that has consultative status with the UN. In meticulous detail - supplemented by photographs and satellite images - the authors describe precisely where and how Lebanon has been infiltrated.

Though the land grabs are small affairs individually, they collectively add up to an area amounting to about 4% of Lebanese soil - in U.S. terms, the proportional equivalent of Arizona. Of particular note is that the area of Syrian conquest dwarves that of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms which amount to an area of about 12 square miles.

It would be nice to see the Arab world protest this case of illegal occupation, given its passions about the subject.

Information worth Possessing

"Israel gave the Palestinians an autonomy in 42% of the West Bank and Gaza after the Oslo accords in the early 90's. Over 92% of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza were then under the administration of the Palestinian Authority and its Chairman Yasser Arafat.

"Israel is surrounded by 10 hostile Arab countries who do not even recognize its right to exist ( Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, Lybia, Morocco, Tunisia, Aden) and Iran"